Re: [orca-list] Using Linux for everyday computing tasks and employment

[hackingKK <hackingkk gmail com>]

On Friday 15 January 2010 10:20 PM, Mallory van Achterberg wrote:
> I use Linux for work, but I would be able to do my work with a Windows
> machine (and I need to have a Windows machine for browser testing
> anyway).  I think the impression that Linux is a hobby OS comes from the
> initial lack of user-friendliness (UNIX is not known for point-and-click
> soccer-mom ease) that a GUI brings to the non-CS-major masses.  It's
> true that Windows was what made a personal computer more on par with a
> toaster or a washing machine as far as it being a home appliance that
> the family uses without necessarily needing to know how it works (we
> don't have to be mechanics to drive the car either).  With the types of
> mouse-friendly distros that have been coming out in the last few years,
> especially Ubuntu, Linux has been made more accessible to the non-geeks
> (like me) and generally on-par with Windows as far as soccer-mom
> usability (but with the power of UNIX close at hand when you need it).
> Given the power of unix and eas of use for non-techees is some thing which has made it the best choice.
>    
Click and setup wifi, access pen drives on the desktop, make richly 
formatted presentations or reports/ spreadsheets and surffing the net or 
writing emails.  This is all so easy for absolute beginners who come to 
linux as their first introduction to computers.
The little bit problem if at all is with the people who used windows 
before.  Even for them things like firefox, openoffice and many other 
graphical softwares are so accessible.
And guess what, you are totally virus free, another pain for people who 
are not technical sound enough to handle emergencies which come often 
due to things like spyware and virus.
The laptop battery naturally lasts longer because processes like anti 
virus etc need not run.  You don't need regular defragmentation for your 
hard disk, almost all the common softwares used by all of us is 
installed by default with the distro.
Having listed all this things, what more can you expect?
The only investement is just a little bit of time and the right attitude 
backed by motivation.

I consider this time spent as an investment worth making, because at the 
end we must understand the importance of digital technology in our life 
today.  And once we realise it, we can easily realise how important it 
is to protect our own freedom in this situation.

> Orca I cannot comment much on as I'm so used to JAWS and learning
> something new is something I do slowly.  I type much slower with orca if
> I want to hear the letters, and I haven't played much with its settings.
> Orca's competition is probably more NVDA, but ultimately the goal would
> be to have the screen reader not be a factor for someone choosing an
> OS.
>    

Well, I took about a month to totally migrate to ubuntu distro and i 
would easily do so in any other distro.

> As Krishnakant mentioned, the free both as in beer and speech makes
> Linux a huge attraction in developing nations, which also happen to
> usually have a higher number of blind and low-vision computer users.
>    

And don't forget the point that jaws is highly restrictive in that we 
can't work closely with developres of that software like we can do with 
orca's developers.
So even non-technical end-users have their say in the development process.
I hope people on this list will remember how the discussion about 
implementing or not implementing a vertual buffer in orca for firefox 
went on for days and weeks together.
It was an example of community participation and whatever decision 
happened was taken after a heated debait.

> Linux is certainly up to the job.  Orca, if it isn't, should be quite
> soon, with all the active development going on.  It took Freedom
> Scientific years to get where they are, plus they had to reverse
> engineer everything (they did not get cooperation from Microsoft).
>    

While many on this list consider people like Richard stolman and 
followers like me as morons, this is exactly what we want to stress upon.
Free software = mutual cooperation and we are sensitised about all the 
issues.
We indeed share ideas and help each other over projects and so what 
takes x years for a proprietory company takes x - many years les for a 
free software.

> Orca developers are free to talk with other Linux devs.  Development can
> only get better.
>
>    
+1
> Our insurance company is actually slowly moving things over to Linux.
> The computers used by the ones using the software are on Windows, but
> the main servers have been switched to Linux and a colleague who uses
> Fedora at home switched to Linux on his work PC and another colleague
> added a dual-boot Ubuntu on his Windows machine.  It's spreading.
>    

As I said, it is the attitude and "why should I do this " which needs to 
be clear first.
if it is my machine and if I use a software I need to be in total 
control of that software and i *must* get the right to tell the 
developers what I want and also hav the right to share it with others.

From my own experience I can confidently say, there are no such things 
called financial losses if we wish to do business in free and open 
source software.
May I remand every one that 90% of proprietory softwares are pirated and 
used.
So by all means people want to break free and have control over things 
like sharing.

Happy hacking.
Krishnakant.